Good stuff, kid
Don Obe reflects on his career and his longtime love affair with New Journalism, which has taken him from Maclean's to Toronto Life to, in 1983, the founding of this magazine.
By Michael Thomas Don Obe has just learned, after an in-person meeting with Peter C. Newman, that he is going to be an associate editor at Maclean’s. It is early 1972. Since Maclean’s has the same level of prestige in Canada as The New Yorker in the United States, this is big news. Everybody wants to work at Maclean’s because that’s where a […]
Classic Gopnik
Why he aspires to be the “rococo, Jewish, city-bound, Canadian E.B. White.”
And so, after five years in France, it came time for Adam Gopnik to leave. As The New Yorker‘s Paris correspondent, he’d covered the trial of a former secretary-general for complicity in war crimes during the Nazi occupation and the media circus that ensued (“a kind of O.J. trial, without television or a glove”). He’d spoken with chefs on the […]
Failing grade
Canada’s news organizations do a lousy job of reaching kids—but there are two notable exceptions.
On January 16, the major news story—major enough to be compared to Titanic—was the sinking of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia. Teaching Kids News ran with the story: “Cruise Ship Runs Aground In Italy.” But on GoGoNews—”Big News For Little People”—the featured stories were about a Chinese duck making its way to California and a penny that was auctioned […]
Beauty and the brawl
Many journalists believe fashion and beauty books are easy targets for aggressive advertisers. But it’s a lot more complicated than that.
Beauty director Laura Fraioli-Keogh was working in her office at Fashion magazine when a publicist for a luxury beauty advertiser called. A major exclusive he had organized with Fraioli-Keogh had just hit newsstands, and he wasn’t happy. “How dare you put someone else’s product on my page!” he demanded. (An exclusive is an article that covers the launch of […]
So long, CanCon
The CRTC no longer requires etalk and ET Canada to cover Canadian entertainment news. But does that mean they shouldn't?
It’s a little after 11 a.m. when Cheryl Hickey enters the studio, all shiny blond hair and thick black eyelashes. Her petite, gracefully slender frame is wrapped in a knee-length, long-sleeved black dress that’s paired with opaque tights. She clicks onto the large, circular stage in black stilettos that are too big for her, she says, and […]
Supportnet
An in-depth look at Sportsnet magazine, its corporate branding, and why parent company Rogers is willing to lose millions on its newest baby.
“Tebowmania is officially over,” a Patriots fan yells to his friend during the second quarter. The Patriots are up by 14 and getting stronger. He’s loud enough for a group of Tebow fans at a nearby table to hear. “It’s like the Patriots are drenched in Tebow blood,” he bellows. “Like a gazelle.” Pigskin poetry. At […]
The Amanda Lang Exchange
Besides matching wits with “Mr. Wonderful,” Canada’s highest-profile financial reporter has earned respect by blending real business with show business.
A lively mass of black blazers and BlackBerrys spills into the University of Toronto’s Innis Town Hall. It’s September 15, 2011, and the group of reporters, bankers, and PR representatives has convened for the Canadian Journalism Foundation‘s forum on the state of financial journalism. The conference falls on the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers—the largest […]
To report or to rescue
When is it okay to cross the line from journalist to humanitarian?
Toronto Star columnist Catherine Porter first met the little girl who would pit her journalist’s instincts against her most human impulses on January 24, 2010, almost two weeks after the earthquake that devastated Haiti. The frail two-year-old, who had been pulled from the rubble after nearly a week, was being cared for at a makeshift medical clinic. […]
Alas, poor morgue!
We knew it well. A fond look back at the old-style newspaper library.
It’s 1985, and you’re writing an article about the one-year anniversary of Marc Garneau‘s first trip into space. You start your research by talking to a librarian in the morgue, who assures you that Garneau has his own file in the biography section. He is also included in the space-flight subject file, and there are three […]
Bravissimo
The life and legacy of Johnny Lombardi
Eighty-five-year-old Johnny Lombardi takes the stage to open the 35th CHIN International Picnic at Toronto’s Exhibition Place on June 30, 2001. Wearing his usual picnic attire—a CHIN Picnic T-shirt and baseball cap that conceals his baldness—the founder of CHIN multicultural radio greets the crowd in Cantonese: “Nei ho ma” (How are you?). With a big smile on his face, […]
